If I ever sat down with JB I would ask...

[TheJrade]

These might be answered somewhere in the WOJ or elsewhere, can someone more knowledgeable than myself shed some light on any of them?  Failing that, I would be perfectly happy with some fanfic-titious guesses at some answers as well.

•   Is Nicodemus part of the Black Council?   Who exactly is the Enemy he is fighting against?  Do he/Lucifer and God simply have different ideas about how the fight against Outside should be conducted/won?
•   Sidhe don’t have souls, right?
•   What would someone see if Harry Soulgazed them?
•   How did Harry’s father die?
•   What is the nature of Dragons?  Are they perhaps multidimensional creatures who only appear to be what we can perceive of them?  Sort of like the way a 2-D creature would see us as incomprehensible and/or invincible.  Only a few things can affect them, Faith in particular.  One could represent Dragon’s involvement with the entirety of the mortal realm as we might regard a literal pen and paper game.
•   How would Molly react to a magic circle?  Could it be used as a soul-o-meter?  Can she still make them herself?
•   Can Molly un-Lady-ify?  Get promoted to Queen?
•   Emissary is an office, does it have an associated Mantle?  Are there other similar offices?
•   Information on Warden Wild Bill Meyers, who is he other than a caricature cowboy wizard?
•   Is Kincaid a scion of the Goblin King?
•   Does Hendricks have Magog’s Denarius?  Could that be what is making him smart enough to get his doctorate?   Can he be former military PMC or is that making his past too busy?
•   Is Marcone all human?
•   What is the nature of being corrupted by Nemesis?  Is it voluntary?  Gradual?  Are you conscious of it?  Nine Rings-y?  One Rings-y?  Like the Fel corruption from Draenor?  Can you break free of it?
•   Would Mother Summer’s Intellectus be fooled by Nemesitic corruption due to it being from ‘outside’?
•   Where is Mavra keeping the Darkhallow?
•   Would a Foo Dog adopted by a villain become evil like how Mouse has become more Harry-like or is their nature inviolable?
•   What do Black Court vampires eat?  Are they Anne Rice vampires?  Is it the whole blood-drinky thing Buffy talks about to create one?
•   What are the names of the various Courts of vampire?
•   If magic causes fluctuations in physics and chemical interactions, it explains why certain devices work rather than others.  Butters would love to set up a long term experiment with clockwork in an area of high magic, an area of fluctuating magic, and a control area of no magic to compare differences between the three.  He might be unable to determine if it is physics changing gravity/chemical interactions, or the flow of time, or perhaps it might not even make a difference either way.
•   Who wants the Blackstaff back?  The Celts or Fomor perhaps?  Is it Mother Winter’s walking stick? 
•   What is the process for getting a place Accorded Neutral Ground?
•   Are there Tolkien elves anywhere?
•   Are the Faire Kings actually kings of Summer/Winter?   WoJ sometimes conflicts with itself…?
•   Do mantles change by hierarchy (WoJ), preparation (Cold Days), or proximity (Harry’s viewpoint in Cold Days)?
•   How much does Lara know about the Long Game from Papa Raith’s library?
•   If Gard can handle iron, why do svartalves not like it?   Why was Harry’s summoning circle so cheap?
•   Did any Rampires survive?  Is it possible for a Rampire to simply not eat after turning?
•   What was Ferrovax in charge of?  What was Siriothrax in charge of?  Info on Pyrovax?  What can you tell me about dragons?
•   Faith cannot possibly be just a little girl. *I* barely know what a coat from the set of El Dorado looks like, let alone her.
•   Will Mother Winter start getting over her cough now that the Winter Lady is back on the job?

[Graves]

so people really not understand you gave michael a retirement plan?

[TheJrade]

Haha, he's not all that retired evidently

[Graves]

in lead in to "the warrior" JB said he gets grief from people who say he did a terrible thing to michael at the end of small favor, but it seemed obvious t me this was a retirement plan. his sense of duty being what it was he'd never willingly lay down the sword so long as he was needed. but the wounds he suffered meant he coud no longer be a knight. so he stood down. he got to be a father to his children and husband to his wife. be a builder. it was clearly God saying 'you've done neough.'

[Graves]

Why Chicago?  did you live there? go to school there? He says he was inlfuenced by Lieber and tolkien but was it also Kolshak? (sp?)

[jonas]

Ok, now let's discuss world creation and metaphysical ties.... (and have i in fact, missed anything really important?)

[Rasins]

Why Chicago?  did you live there? go to school there? He says he was inlfuenced by Lieber and tolkien but was it also Kolshak? (sp?)

Chicago was a decision that was made at the request of his publisher.  He wanted to have it set in Kansas City, but that's too close to St. Louis where (I forget her name) already has an Urban Fantasy story set.  He didn't want to do NY or LA, they've been over done.  Didn't want to do Washington, DC, because he didn't want to get into the politics.  Chicago was a good alternative.

[Graves]

Chicago was a decision that was made at the request of his publisher.  He wanted to have it set in Kansas City, but that's too close to St. Louis where (I forget her name) already has an Urban Fantasy story set.  He didn't want to do NY or LA, they've been over done.  Didn't want to do Washington, DC, because he didn't want to get into the politics.  Chicago was a good alternative.

anita blake was st louis. and the interesting thing is i got into dresden because of the decline of blake. New York doesn't seem to have been done to death. I think it's too mucxh of an icon, you can't live up to it-one diane tregard stroy was set there and while Il oved the story the errors were massive.

[wardenferry419]

Chicago has a mystique with its dark and bloody history. Imagine Harry setting up shop in say....Dallas or Nashville.

[TheJrade]

Anyone care to hypothesize as to the answers to any of these?  C'mon, let's get some of the old-school fun of this board back!

[Graves]

Chicago has a mystique with its dark and bloody history. Imagine Harry setting up shop in say....Dallas or Nashville.

chicago has no sense of itself. Boston has a certain pugnacious glee, new York a sense of motion and purpose, Philly a vague sense of inferiority, LA and DC sooo sure they are important while everyone else mocks them. Seattle has a sense of humor to itself but I could get NO feel for "Chicago." it's a cluster of different neighborhoods that happen to be next to each other. It's history is a serious of riots and mistakes that it absolutely refuses to learn from.

[wardenferry419]

I, respectfully, disagree.

[AndiSue]

I'll take a stab at some of these for the sake of conversation...

•   Sidhe don’t have souls, right? I'm pretty sure it's been said in the books that they do not have souls because they are not human, which is why Harry can't soulgaze them. But then again, Harry is an unreliable narrator.
•   How did Harry’s father die? supposedly a brain aneurysm
•   Is Marcone all human?My guess is that Jim's answer to this would be the same as his answer to the same question regarding Mac - he has never done anything a vanilla mortal can't do
•   What do Black Court vampires eat?  Are they Anne Rice vampires?  Is it the whole blood-drinky thing Buffy talks about to create one? I think this is yes - they are blood drinkers
•   What are the names of the various Courts of vampire? Black, Red, White, Jade
•   Who wants the Blackstaff back?  The Celts or Fomor perhaps?  Is it Mother Winter’s walking stick?  The Blackstaff as Mother Winter's walking stick is, I think, the prevailing fan theory
•   Did any Rampires survive?  Is it possible for a Rampire to simply not eat after turning? Many people think the Eebs may have survived as they were in the Nevernever. If a Rampire did not feed it would starve to death.
•   Faith cannot possibly be just a little girl. *I* barely know what a coat from the set of El Dorado looks like, let alone her. Here I will share my big WAG. **THIS IS JUST MY THEORY** Faith Astor is the biological daughter of Charity Carpenter. Let me back up a bit...Mr. and Mrs. Astor are high society and very concerned about appearances and other people's opinion of them. Charity is their biological daughter who embarrassed them by being a witch and running off with a dragon cult. Charity became pregnant while in the cult - possibly by the dragon - but somehow managed to get the baby (Faith) out to her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Astor raise Faith because it makes them look good/helps them recover from the embarrassment of Charity. My theory continues that Charity was already pregnant with Molly when she was rescued by Michael - thus making Faith Astor and Molly Carpenter full siblings. Also - and this is where I haven't been able to connect all of the dots - there has to be a reason that we have Faith (Astor), Hope (youngest Carpenter daughter) and Charity (Carpenter) (

[Ananda]

Chicago has a mystique with its dark and bloody history. Imagine Harry setting up shop in say....Dallas or Nashville.

Some authors really give you a sense of place, but I’ve never gotten that from the DF. The city just seems generic “city” with a few Chicago details thrown in. He’d never been there till quite a bit into the serial from what I’d read, so that makes sense. For contrast, Anne Rice gives quite a sense of place in her works, especially New Orleans and San Francisco.

[wardenferry419]

The RPG section on Chicago adds to the mystique.